COMBAT IN PANAMA : Son’s Call From Hospital Tells Family of Bullet Wound

Richard Turner picked up the phone. The voice on the other end was that of his son.

His son the soldier. His son the Army private who had joined the service only last February. The son who had been sent to Panama with other troops of the 82nd Airborne Division.

The call, which came Thursday morning, was from the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. The first news of the wounding of Pvt. Richard Turner Jr. came from the lips of the son himself.

No, the wound wasn’t bad. The bullet that struck his helmet felt like he had been hit with a baseball bat. Hard. And he had been suffering from heat exhaustion. But he was fine now. Not like his buddy. His buddy was dead, one of the casualties of the Panama invasion.

The Turners, who live in DeSoto, Tex., were in their car heading south little more than an hour after the call. And on Friday, they were telling what their son had told them.

The younger Turner, who was stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C., was on maximum alert when the word came that his unit was mobilizing for a mission. There was no destination given, but also no hint that this was anything more than yet another training run.

“He thought they were going to fly around for awhile,” said his mother, Linda. “He thought they were going to fly over and jump on a site at Ft. Bragg.”

This time, though, the mission was real. The young private’s father was almost certain his son was on the way when he turned on the news and heard of the American attack. But that was what soldiers do. That’s what he had done before retiring from the Navy in 1987. Still, Richard Turner kept the television on, hour after hour.

Pvt. Turner made it fine through the first 24 hours, as his parents tell it. Then he and his buddy, whose name the parents did not wish to disclose, came up over a hill. A sniper opened fire. Turner’s buddy fell and the 19-year-old private threw his body on top of him.

Then came the thud of the baseball bat. The blow was not enough to knock him unconscious, and he felt for the pulse of his friend. There was none.

Turner kept going, but he could not for long and soon he was on his way to San Antonio. His eyes well with tears, his parents said, when he talks about what happened. They said he just kept repeating, “It was real. It was real.”

His parents said Pvt. Turner is an Army fan. As his mother put it: “He struts around in his uniform like it’s gold-plated. The most important thing in his life is his uniform.”

But he does not want to go back to Panama.

“He’s had his fill,” said his mother.

The Turners still are unsure when their son will be released. But at least, as Mrs. Turner said, “It’s over for us.”

The elder Turner said their Christmas plans are unchanged.

“It’s making our Christmas better than it would have been,” he said.

As the Turners were visiting their son, the chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Carl Vuono, arrived to decorate the wounded soldiers just as many of them were about to be flown back to their bases. A spokesman for Wilford Hall Hospital said that nine wounded soldiers had already been released and that more than 50 would be shuttled out of San Antonio as soon as flights could be arranged.

Meanwhile, another planeload of injured was flown to San Antonio on Friday morning, raising the number to 211 who have been treated at Brooke and the Air Force’s Wilford Hall medical center.

Vuono pinned the Purple Heart and combat infantry badge on three wounded soldiers--Pvt. Christian Robinson, no hometown available; Pfc. Bobby Miller of Franklin, Pa., and Spec. 4 Albert Harris, of Jackson, Miss. All three suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds.

“Every soldier in the Army, and all of us, are very proud of every one of you,” Vuono said.

He also said President Bush wished to relay the message that he was “proud of you, each and every one of you, for your sacrifices, your heroism, for your dedication to duty and your selfless commitment to the service of the nation.”

Bush plans to visit the hospital after Christmas, the White House announced.